How Not To Make Lady Maisery Biscuits

It started well, I thought. Using paper templates and a sharp knife, I ended up with these, which I thought looked reasonable. (By the way, I used Nigella's 'Butter Cut-out Biscuits' recipe from 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess')

Then it all started to go wrong.  I made what I now realise to be a fatal error, and decided to try out some shop-bought icing. Never again.  The main problem is the consistency, which just doesn't have the same versatility or stickability as proper icing. 

So these are my interim Lady Maisery biscuits, pending another batch with a much better effort on the icing front...